Rotherham Grooming Scandal: Six Jailed for 22 Child Sex Offences

Rotherham Grooming Gang
South Yorkshire Police
Virginia Hale

Six men of Pakistani heritage have been handed jail sentences for sexually abusing five underage girls in Rotherham following an eight-week trial, during which jurors heard the men had “destroyed” their victims’ childhoods.

Mohammed Imran Akhtar, Nabeel Kurshid, Asif Ali, Iqlak Yousaf, Salah El-Hakam, and Tanweer Ali were sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, after they were convicted at the end of last month of 22 child sexual exploitation (CSE) offences which took place in Rotherham between 1998 and 2005.

According to local media, the men failed to show any remorse for the string of offences they committed, which included indecent assault, rape, and false imprisonment.

One victim told the court how her childhood was “snatched away” as a result of the abuse, explaining she was made to have sex with “at least 100 Asian men” by the time she was aged 16 after she was “passed around” by the defendants from the age of just 13, as Breitbart London reported previously.

During the trial, the jury also heard the complainants were “frequently in cars stopped by the police but this did not deter the abusers” with the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Paul Williamson explaining that the men “used violence and intimidation and believed they were untouchable by law enforcement”.

Sentencing, Judge Sarah Wright told the men: “Each in your own way perpetrated, facilitated or encouraged the sexual abuse of these young girls.

“Each of the complainants, in this case, were groomed, coerced and intimidated. Each of them was groomed. Each of you, groomed.

“You can have been in no doubt that the complainants were vulnerable in the extreme.”

Mike Duffy from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement: “These men deliberately preyed on young, vulnerable teenagers, grooming and exploiting them.

The full details of the sentencing, as reported by BBC News, are as follows:

Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar, (37), of Rotherham, was found guilty of one rape, one charge of aiding and abetting rape, three indecent assaults, one charge of procuring a girl under 21 to have unlawful sexual intercourse with another and one sexual assault, and was sentenced to 23 years.

Nabeel Kurshid, (35), of Rotherham, was found guilty of two counts of rape and one indecent assault, and was sentenced to 19 years.

Iqlak Yousaf, (34), of Rotherham, was found guilty of two rapes and two indecent assaults, and was sentenced to 20 years.

Tanweer Ali, (37), of Rotherham, was found guilty of two rapes, two indecent assaults and one charge of false imprisonment, and was sentenced to 14 years.

Salah Ahmed El-Hakam, (39), of Sheffield, was found guilty of one rape, and was sentenced to 15 years.

While a seventh man, known as “X” and cannot be named for legal reasons, will be sentenced at a later date after being convicted of two counts of rape.

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